13. 'rig s-TTiSTtuffag, as thou hast believed) A bountiful con cession.
14. Tlev&tpav, mother-in-law) Peter had not long before mar ried a wife, and they are guilty of a mistake who paint him with white hair;1 for all the disciples were young, and had a long course to perform in this world ; see John xxi. 18.2 This must be well kept in mind in every Evangelical History.3 — vvp'sffffovffav, sick of a fever} in the actual paroxysm.
15. A/»jxov£/ A-JTU, waited upon Him) She performed the duty of the house-mother (mater-familias), as a joyful sign of her entire restoration to health. St Mark and St Luke mention the dis ciples as preferring the request in favour of Peter's mother-in- law, and therefore add — 8ir)%.6vei airoTc, she ivaited upon THEM, sc. the Lord and His disciples. St Matthew mentions only the Lord, and therefore wrote Aurw. The erroneous reading, aur&/j, has been introduced from the other Evangelists.4
16. 'o-4//ac, evening) of that day on which so much had been said and done. Diseases are wont to be more oppressive at eventide. — ra wsvpaTa, the spirits) i.e. the devils. — X&yw, with a
1 Although it is not improbable that he was older than the other dis ciples.— B. H. E. p. 257.
2 You may gather that concerning Judas Iscariot from Ps. cix. 8, 9 ; Zebedee and Salome, the parents of James and John, were likewise both still living.— B. H. E. p 258.
8 For whoever will carefully weigh the youthful age of the disciples, and their original family connections and former condition, will readily make allowances for several errors which were committed by them in their state of discipleship, and, having regard to this consideration of the time, he will not require from them more than is reasonable, and so will find himself extri cated from not a few difficulties. — Harm. 1. c.
4 Those who are anxious to avoid Transpositions, maintain the opinion, that the mother-in-law of Peter was delivered from a fever more than once. But in the case of sick persons healed by the Saviour, the danger that im pended over them was not from the return of their disease, but from some greater evil. Nor did the Lord warn the mother-in-law of Peter, as He did others, on that head : and if she had been attacked by fever anew, it would have happened at a most brief interval after the former cure, and therefore in that case the disciples, who were as yet but novices, might have doubted along with others, whether the fever (a disease liable to alternations and in termissions more than all other diseases) had been really and completely removed. — Harm. p. 257.